“Okay.”
“That’s when the dreams started getting darker and I started dying in them.” She swallowed hard. “And that person I see out of the corner of my eye now and then? He’s covered in blood. And I’m pretty sure it’s mine.”
Zane didn’t know what to say. He got chills just listening to the scene she described.
After a moment, Rachel got up and slipped into a light jacket like their conversation had never happened. “I’m going to run down to In-N-Out and pick up some more burgers and fries.”
“I’ll go with you,” he said, then added, “I could use a walk.”
Rachel looked like she didn’t buy his BS, but she also looked a little relieved to have company.
Neither of them said anything as they made their way along the busted sidewalk. That was fine with Zane. He was too busy wondering how he was going to deal with everything. Not only did he have to determine if Stefan was hiding Curtis and help Alyssa locate those missing girls, but he also had to figure out if she was indeedThe Onefor him. On top of that, he had to keep Rachel from losing her mind and help Zoe and Chloe find their alpha. All while his bum arm left him little more than half a werewolf.
Bloody hell, he was in so far over his head.
* * *
“You know, you could have ordered anything you want,” Alyssa said to Zoe and Chloe, sitting on the other side of the table at the restaurant where she’d taken them to lunch. “It’s on the FBI’s dime. You didn’t have to go with the cheapest thing on the menu.”
Zoe and Chloe looked up from their ooey-gooey grilled cheese sandwiches and smiled at exactly the same time, with exactly the same smile.
“We ordered grilled cheese and potato chips because we both love them,” Zoe said. “Not because they’re cheap. After all the money you spent on us this afternoon, saving a few bucks is the last thing we’d be thinking about.”
Alyssa smiled, satisfied the girls weren’t depriving themselves out of some twisted sense of guilt. The whole purpose of this little shopping spree and late lunch had been to get the twins out of their hotel room and hopefully get their minds off their troubles for a little while. It wasn’t like retail therapy would bring back their parents or make their nightmares go away, but if it helped for even a few minutes, it would be worth it.
“Thanks again for all the clothes,” Chloe said softly. “But thanks even more for the personal hygiene stuff. Rinsing the one set of clothes we had in restroom sinks was getting old, but brushing without toothpaste was the absolute worst.”
Alyssa laughed and munched another one of the fries that had come with her ginormous turkey club. “No problem at all. If you two decide you need anything else, call me and we’ll go get it.”
The girls nodded and spent a few minutes paying attention to their food. Alyssa had to admit they were holding up a lot better than she’d expected. Of course, having experienced something similar herself when she was about their age, she knew there was a good chance the girls were in denial at the moment, refusing to even think about what had happened to them, much less talk about it. She knew from experience that coping mechanism wouldn’t work for long. But until the girls were ready to talk, there was little anyone could do.
“I want you guys to know that if you ever need to talk, I’ll never be more than a phone call away,” she said softly. “Even after we get this all taken care of and go our separate ways, you can always call me. Okay?”
Even though both girls nodded again, Chloe looked so timid right then that Alyssa knew she wouldn’t be ready to talk for a while.
While the poor girls ate like they were starving, Alyssa couldn’t eat all of her sandwich. Between the donuts this morning and the fries at the motel, she was still full. That was okay. Zoe and Chloe had no problem taking up her slack, splitting the remaining half sandwich and the rest of her fries, then practically inhaling them. They might be small, but they ate like Zane.
“Have you two thought about what you’re going to do next?” Alyssa asked as they collected their shopping bags and headed out of the restaurant. “I know Zane mentioned you guys wanted to stay in LA for a while. Are you just planning to sightsee and stuff, or is there someone out here you came to see?”
Chloe glanced at her curiously as they walked back to the car. “Zane didn’t tell you why we wanted to stay?”
Alyssa shook her head. “No. I assumed it was something private.”
“It was,” Zoe agreed. “But we thought since you two were partners that he’d tell you anyway.”
“Oh, we’re not partners,” she admitted with a laugh. “We just met the other night.”
Zoe exchanged looks with her twin, as if they were somehow communicating with each other telepathically, then smiled at Alyssa. “That doesn’t mean you won’t become partners soon.”
Alyssa almost laughed. She remembered what it was like to be that young and naive. Zane was definitely attractive, and even if they ended up in bed at some point—never mind overlooking the whole he-may-not-be-human thing—there was no way in hell the two of them would ever end up as partners. Not when they were worlds apart.
It wasn’t until she dropped Zoe and Chloe off at their hotel that she realized the twins never did answer her question.
* * *
“You changed your hair again,” Alyssa said the moment she walked into Christine’s tiny broom closet of a space at the FBI’s LA field office. She’d curled her shoulder-length, dark-brown hair just enough so that it framed her face and softened her features. “Wasn’t it straight when I saw you the other day?”
Her friend looked up from her computer with a smile. “I didn’t really change it as much as left it up to fate to determine what it was going to look like today. Obviously, fate likes my hair to have some waves to it because this is what it looked like after I washed it.”
